Made from exactly two full 4x8-ft. sheets of three-quarter-inch plywood, with no waste or scrap. Two large pieces slide into each other to form an X-shaped cross-section, and four half-size pieces are tucked at an angle into their inside corners. Decorations hang from push pins and hooks threaded through the green felt-covered panels. The top holds a red velvet rose representing Love. This tree was one in a series of 25 of the World's Wildest Christmas Trees shown in Annie Hauser's article for This Old House, 2010.

No electric cords, no lightbulbs — real live candles get lit (see below). The hard work of cutting out the panels was done in 1987 by Kamran Sedaghatkish, then an art student at the Maryland Institute, College of Art, and a member of the Jones household during his student years. Lately the tree has stayed up year-round. Photographs by Art Blumberg.